


Tempting the Sea (Fate Will Forgive Us)

by SecretEnigma



Series: Lunoct Week [5]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Accidental Marriage, Alternate Universe - Mermaids, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Background World-Building That I Won't Expand On Here, Don't copy to another site, F/M, Human!Noctis, In Which Kissing Is Marriage, Kinda, Lunoct Week, Lunoct Week 2020, Reincarnation, everybody has magic, mermaid au, mermaid!Luna
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:00:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26653336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecretEnigma/pseuds/SecretEnigma
Summary: For Lunoct Week 2020. Prompts used: Reincarnation/Boyfriend Jacket.A thousand years after the Long Night, Eos is changed, magic flows free, and it is now not unheard of for souls to Walk Twice beneath the sun.One early morning, the aftermath of a storm brings two such souls back together, and the sea gives back what it once stole a long, long time ago.
Relationships: Lunafreya Nox Fleuret/Noctis Lucis Caelum
Series: Lunoct Week [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1934224
Comments: 10
Kudos: 69
Collections: Lunoct Week 2020





	Tempting the Sea (Fate Will Forgive Us)

**Author's Note:**

> Kinda an impulse AU, I was originally gonna do something else, but the muses suddenly went- nah we do mermaids instead.
> 
> Also anyone who's read my Nox Merfolk AU will know what HCs I'm using for merfolk and kissing. I just couldn't resist. XD
> 
> Also also the name of this fic is a paraphrase/tweak of the first line of the chorus in the song Used to Be by Arrows to Athens. I don't know why I chose it but it just- fit somehow.

Dawn was the best time to visit the beach. There weren’t too many people around, especially the morning after a bad storm, and usually he could get a few quiet hours all to himself before having to worry about other people ruining his zen. It made it worth dealing with the morning chill to get up that early and head down to the beach with his paddle board and a jacket.

The storm last night had been … bad. Really bad. Loud and crashing and angry in a way he knew others would say was just his imagination —but it never felt like his imagination, just like all the other little things in his life that no one else understood or believed—. It had made his childhood nightmares come back with a vengeance and left him gasping for air in the dark of his room more than once, rubbing the birthmark on his chest like he could lose the knot of fear and grief that way. But now the storm was passed and the air was clear and the water looked inviting as he picked his way through the junk the storm had washed up on the sand in the night. He waded into the cold water and climbed onto his paddle board as soon as it was deep enough, straddling it rather than standing because he was still groggy and it was easier this way. More relaxing.

The first fingers of sunlight turned the waves orange and gold and pink, and Noctis thought Prom would probably love to be out here too if he wasn’t at his parents’ house and had a cold. Prom would be sketching furiously on the beach or digging out the new camera his parents had got him if he was here. Noctis breathed in the salty air and kicked his feet slowly in the cold water, feeling the tight knot of anxiety left over from the storm slowly unwind. Grabbing his paddle, he started down the line of the beach, aiming for the rockier parts of the coast. There were some very nice little beaches and coves that couldn’t be accessed from the land side because of how steep the rocks were, but they were easy enough to paddle to if one knew where to go.

Noctis took his time paddling, mostly just enjoying the morning. He liked mornings. There was something very nice and quiet about them. He wasn’t a “morning person” who liked to be up and moving and doing things that early, let alone one who liked dealing with people. But being up that early and having a few hours just to himself, just to be quiet and think his own thoughts, feel the ambient magic of the world before people and everyday life cluttered it up … that was nice.

Something tugged on his senses, pulling him out of his thoughts and the peaceful zen of being on the water. He looked around with a frown, trying to pinpoint the feeling. His magic sensitivity was higher than most —just like his magic reserves—, but usually the only thing that pulled his attention like that was the feel of someone else’s pain. But it was dawn and he was paddling a few yards out from one of the smallest, most unknown coves on this section of shoreline. There shouldn’t be anyone else **here**. His gaze drifted toward the tiny beach and his breath froze.

There was someone **there**.

He paddled for the beach in alarm. He didn’t see any board or boat or kayak nearby, and the rocks surrounding this cove were **steep** and **sharp** , with thick, thorny bushes lining the top that kept people on the road from seeing the cove even existed. If someone had fallen down there from the little dirt road that wound past it-. Noctis tried to remember if he’d replenished the first aid kit in his truck and cursed himself for not bringing his phone, risk of it dropping into the water be hanged. He slipped off his paddle board once he was in the shallows, picked his way up past the debris toward the glint of wet skin and tangled gold hair he could see behind some rocks, “Hey, hey are you okay? **Hey**!” One bare shoulder twitched, which was good because that meant he hadn’t stumbled on a dead body —the bare shoulder worried him, was this someone who’d gotten knocked off a boat? Who would be out boating in a storm like the one last night?—. Noctis stumbled his way up the beach, wincing at the pebbles among the sand that nipped his bare feet, “Do you need me to take you to a … hospital… Leviathan’s **fins**.”

Noctis stopped and gaped despite himself even as blue eyes cracked open and squinted past the dried blood smeared on a pale face. Because that wasn’t someone he could just take to his local hospital.

There was no way his local hospital had the right equipment to deal with a **mermaid**.

The mermaid shivered on the sand and made the faintest noise that might have been confusion or might have been pain and Noctis snapped out of his shock with a curse. He knelt down and held his hands out placatingly, not wanting to get gored by the really sharp claws she had if he got too close without her permission, “Hey. Easy. I won’t hurt you, I live nearby. You need help, will you let me help you?” Noctis glanced helplessly toward the ocean, then back at dazed blue eyes, “Is your Pod nearby? I could paddle you out to open water…” His gaze flicked over the rest of her body and his words died at the sight of the long gash running down the muscled gold tale and the bloody ribbons that used to be one of her side fins. He could see blood on her tail fin too and swallowed back the urge to vomit, “Okay, definitely can’t just drop you back into the open ocean.”

Considering how quiet everything was, he had to guess her Pod wasn’t anywhere nearby. Merfolk might not like interacting with humans that often —much like their patron Astral, merfolk didn’t tend to have the highest opinion of humanity, hadn’t for centuries—, but they weren’t afraid to raise a racket and get help from the Coast Guard if one of their own got in trouble with fishermen or got beached on land. Considering he wasn’t a Coast Guard and had no way to contact the local Pod for help, and he couldn’t just **leave her** here for however many hours it would take to contact the Guard and then for them to contact the local Pod, he was on his own for now. On his own and in bad need of a plan.

He really should have brought along his phone.

The mermaid seemed cognizant at least, watching him warily but not in a blind terror or aggression —she still looked a bit dazed, which might have been from being tossed around like a chew toy by the storm last night or might have been from a concussion, but at least she seemed aware of her surroundings—. Noctis forced a smile and tentatively held out a hand, “I’m not sure if you know this language, but uh, I want to help. I have a paddle board, and my truck is parked just down the coast. I … you need help. And medicine. Can I … will you let me help?”

A few sluggish blinks and she lay her head back on the sand with a shiver and a sigh. Noctis took that as a tentative yes and closed the last of the distance, talking softly the whole time so as not to scare her. He firmly ignored the gibbering part of his brain that pointed out that clothes were **really** not a part of the average merfolk culture —who needed fabric getting in the way of swimming when deep under water, or getting in the way of the gils on their sides after all—. The white-gold scales winding up from her tail covered a large chunk of her torso, roughly like a strapless cocktail dress covered up a human woman, and really if he was going to help her then he couldn’t afford to close his eyes and get embarrassed.

He still took off his jacket and gently bundled it around her. He didn’t think either of them were up for getting her arms in the sleeves, but it had snaps as well as a zipper, so he just snapped the top two like a makeshift cloak and told himself that would do. She didn’t flinch from his touch or try to tear him open with her claws as he carefully rolled her onto her back and clumsily picked her up bridal style. He wheezed softly under the weight, because while her human half was slender and small, her tail was around five and a half feet of pure muscle and slick scales, and that was **not** light.

In the end, he couldn’t carry her like he would a human, but managed to coax her into sitting up and half draping her torso on his shoulder with her arms wrapped around his neck —and tried not to think about those claws so close to his **throat** — while he bridal carried her drooping tail. It was still a struggle to pick his way down to the shore, but losing that bet with Gladio a year ago and having to submit to being his friend’s practice client as a personal trainer was paying off, because he **didn’t** fall flat on his face or drop her as he waded into the water and managed to fumble his way into putting her on his paddle board. She seemed reluctant to let go of him as he put her on the board, eyeing the thing with open skepticism, and Noctis smiled reassuringly at her, “Don’t worry, this thing can take Gladio **and** Prom flailing around on it at the same time, it’ll handle you just fine.” He didn’t mention how glad he was that he’d gotten such a big board even though he was usually the only one on it. She wasn’t as long as the board, even with her tail, but he had a suspicion that she weighed more than he did. Probably closer to Gladio’s weight at **least**. Came with having a five and half foot tail he supposed.

The mermaid slowly let go of him and Noctis started climbed onto the board in front of her —he nearly fell in a few times trying to get on without capsizing the thing—, then paddled them back down the shoreline to the main beach. Somewhere along the way, a gentle, gold-scaled hand settled against his hip, and he regularly paused in his paddling to touch her wrist in silent reassurance —he knew he’d be scared if he was her right now, paddling off somewhere at the relative mercy of a stranger from another species that she might not even know the language of—. The main beach was still empty when he got there, thank the Astrals, and he was exhausted by the time he had staggered up the beach with her in his arms and laid her down on some hastily positioned blankets in the bed of his truck —thank you Ignis for making sure he had blankets in the truck—. He had to double back for his board and paddle and then position them so they didn’t risk falling on her as he drove home, because he had **not** refilled the truck’s first aid kit —that was a mistake he was never making again, ever—.

Getting her into the house and then safely ensconced in a half full bathtub was a trial he didn’t want to ever repeat, but nobody got injured and once she was there, he was able to grab his phone, his first aid kit, and some waterproof bandages and take a look at her injuries while he speed dialed the only person he could think of to help in this mess since Prompto was still at his parents’ house —of all the times for his housemate to be away, it had to be when Noctis found a **mermaid** —. The mermaid tilted her head obediently as he cleaned the cut on her forehead while pinning the phone to his ear with his shoulder as it rang. _Come on, I know you’re up by now. Answer me._

Fourth ring and it picked up, “Noct?”

“Yeah, hypothetical question,” he said tightly as he finished washing out the head wound —not disinfecting just yet, because he didn’t know if merfolk were allergic to human medication— and took a long uneasy look at long cut on her tail and the scratch on her torso that was dangerously close to her gills, “Say somebody has an injured mermaid in their bathtub with a possible concussion, a forehead wound, a big scratch near her left gills, another big scratch running down the side of the tail, and a shredded side fin plus a few other injuries, what should that person do?”

“ **What**?” The shout was loud enough to make the mermaid startle and blink at the phone with a soft trill that Noctis was pretty sure was a word in the mer language but couldn’t place —it wasn’t like there were merlish language courses at the community college level—.

Noctis laughed weakly, “ **Hypothetically** , I’ve been having a **really** weird and stressful morning and I don’t know how one goes about calling the Coast Guard to tell them I found a mermaid injured on the beach and didn’t think she’d make it if I just left her there for who knows how long it would take the proper authorities to get there. I also hypothetically forgot my phone back at the house and my truck’s first aid kit was almost empty, so I didn’t have any other choice but to bring her home and put her in the bathtub because merfolk need to be in water, right?” His laugh trailed off to a whimper that earned him a concerned touch on his cheek from the increasingly alarmed mermaid, “Hypothetically, I’m tired and sore and **freaking out** right now, Iggy. So if you could walk me through merfolk first aid or something that would be **great**.”

“I’m coming over,” Ignis said firmly and Noctis could have hugged him, “tell me what injuries you can see and what medical supplies you have.”

While Ignis drove over, Noctis described every injury he could see and all the medical supplies he had. Ignis told him which supplies to avoid using on her scales and what to do with the more minor injuries. He also warned Noctis to not touch her shredded fin, but just make sure it wasn’t still bleeding. The mermaid cooperated with all his awkward pokes and prods, even tittered faintly at him when he blushingly treated the scratch on her side —she had a **really** pretty laugh for someone who had been maybe-dying just that morning—.

Ignis swept in thirty minutes into the operation and effectively took over with a few quick words, then banished Noctis to the living room while he finished up the medical treatment and called the appropriate authorities, because Iggy knew **everyone** and **everything** and wouldn’t be rendered exhausted and dazed by a mermaid in a bathtub. Noctis gratefully flopped down on the couch and fell asleep in seconds, every muscle sore from carting around the mermaid with the golden scales.

He dreamed of a city in rubble and rain. The screaming silhouette of the Tidemother overshadowing every building and the crashing of the waves. His heart pounded as he flew through the air on wings of silver blades and tried to find- something. Something important. He caught a glimpse of pale white-gold amidst the rain-soaked rubble and something inside him broke loose. He was suddenly falling, no longer borne up on wings of silver blades but instead tumbling end over end into the water-.

The water was an eerie, flower blue, and everything was so very, very quiet. White-gold hair rippled in the water and everything ws _wrong-wrong-wrong-please-no-not-this-not-again_.

_“Would that I could join you. But this moment … will have to be enough.”_

The voice was so gentle, so sad, so familiar that it burned against his soul. He reached out a hand, but could not reach, _“All I wanted,”_ he begged without sound, _“was to save you!”_ She smiled, sad and kind and understanding, and all he could see was the pale blue of her eyes.

_“When the world falls down around you, and hope is lost. When you find yourself alone, amid a lightless place. Look to the distance, know that I am there, and that I watch over you always. Farewell, dear Noctis.”_

_No._ _No-no-no-no-_ , “ **Luna**!” He sat up and the world was too sharp, too real, too vivid, just like after the other dreams he’d had since childhood that **meant** things he’d never willingly told anyone about —not after his parents almost had him committed, not after he’d tried to tell them what he was and been accused of lying to grab attention, not when it had taken years of searching on his own to finally find a way to be diagnosed and proven **right** —. Like the dreams that had led him to Prompto, and Ignis, and Gladiolus —names chosen by coincidence, yet also not because those had been their names once and now were again—.

Like the dreams that drew him ever to the ocean, because something precious had fallen into the waves once upon a lifetime ago and he’d never known **what** until…

Now.

He staggered off the couch and ran for the bathroom. Ignis wasn’t in the bathroom anymore —Noctis thought he heard him clattering around in the kitchen, so some time must have passed—, but the mermaid was still awake and looked up in concern when he stumbled in and sank to his knees on the tile. He looked at her, really looked, and … it was her face. It was her **eyes** and **hair**. Even the color of her scales was like her long forgotten magic and he … he couldn’t… His hand came up as if to touch her cheek, but didn’t dare —what if he was wrong, what if she didn’t remember, what if she disappeared the moment he tried—, “Luna,” he whispered in a language a thousand years forgotten and changed, and light rushed into her eyes.

Gold scaled hands reached out to clasp his hand without fear, and he saw burning hope in her eyes, “ **Noctis** ,” she whispered back in a tongue no one in his life but him had ever remembered, “… **My** Noctis?” The question was fragile, just as desperate and hopeful as the one hammering in his chest and Noctis hadn’t expected to start crying this morning, but he hadn’t expected a lot of things about this morning now had he?

He pressed his lips to the back of her hand, “Luna,” he whispered again, “You’re **here**. You came **back**.”

Luna smiled at him, and her teeth were sharp as needles now, but somehow it was still her smile despite it all, “I was told I could have a second chance to find you. I’ve … I’ve been looking since I was a child.” She laughed weakly, “I should have guessed that you would be human rather than mer. I became one of Leviathan’s children, but … you are still one of Bahamut’s, aren’t you?”

Noctis shook his head, grinning despite himself, and used his free hand to tug on the braid on his temple, “Ramuh’s, actually. It’s Noctis Ulric now. I got … I got adopted out when I was ten, after … things.” After his blood parents had refused to believe he was a Walked Twice even though it was a proven —if rare— phenomena, after they had punished him for his dreams and then nearly had him committed until Doctor Lucrecia had stepped in and hand him removed for his own health, but those were not memories he wanted to dwell on right now. Or ever again. He’d been taken in by the ancient clan of Ulric, who were loud and proud in being children of Ramuh, and an Ulric he was more than happy to stay.

Even though this was their first meeting in a thousand years, her gaze softened like she could hear the things he was leaving unspoken, “Oh, Noctis… I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be,” he whispered fiercely, “You’re **here**. You’re…” he glanced at her injured fin and bandaged head, “you’re going to be okay. We’ll get you back to your Pod and … and you’ll come see me?”

Her hands tightened on his, “I am not leaving you, Noctis. Not this time.” Her expression became shy, “Unless … you would prefer otherwise.”

Noctis swallowed the hundred thousand things he wanted to say to that, then picked the most important one — _“You really ought to be more honest about the way you feel, Noct. If you don’t do it now, you might never get the chance.”_ —, “Luna, I **love you**. I never- I didn’t have the courage to say it before, but I loved you then and I **love you now**. If you … if you still want to try … there is nothing I’d want more than staying with you.”

Luna’s mouth had formed a soft little “O” of astonishment, eyes bright with unshed tears, then she gave a bright, singing trill of merlish that tugged on all his heartstrings and lunged forward, leaning halfway out of the bathtub and tugging his hair with one hand to pull his mouth down to hers. They kissed, clumsy and hard but willing and joyous, and Noctis felt her magic reach out to twine and bind with his, unbreakable and bright, and for a long moment nothing else in the world mattered.

Then he heard footsteps behind him and a horrified, “ **Noctis**!” and jolted away from her lips with a noise of surprise. He blinked sluggishly at Ignis, mind spinning from elation and the feel of _new-familiar-loving_ magic settling next to his own in his soul, and watched in bemusement as Ignis actually started spitting sparks in his distress, “What did you just- do you have **any** idea-!”

“She kissed first?” Noctis mumbled shyly, not sure what the issue was —though he supposed it did look stupid, kissing the injured mermaid he’d found on the beach when Iggy didn’t know that they had known each other, loved each other, a lifetime ago—. Ignis looked disbelieving, then cradled his head in his hands with a puff of agitated smoke and a groan.

Luna ran gentle claws through Noctis’s hair, careful of his braid as she whispered in their shared old tongue, “I’m afraid I never learned the modern human languages, what is he saying?”

“He’s mad that we kissed, I think?” Noctis answered as Ignis raised his head from his hands to watch them talk with a look of dawning comprehension —and some lingering horror—. Luna started chuckling sheepishly and Noctis turned his head to look at her in confusion, “What did we just do?”

Luna blushed and her tail slapped against the tile of the bathroom, “Well … we never did get to marry, and I was afraid that without something drastic, the Pod might not be amendable to us staying together. So I … might have … been very reckless just now.”

Noctis stared at her for a few seconds, then slowly rifled through what he little knew of mermaid customs from pop culture and the many all-nighters Ignis had pulled last year writing his college final paper on the subject. Realization dawned and Noctis sat down hard on the bathroom floor, “Did we just- did we just **elope**? In my **bathroom**?”

“Well…”

Noctis looked over at Ignis with a budding grin despite the sheer **drama** he could already see coming from this, “Iggy, did I just get married to a mermaid?”

Ignis stared pleadingly at the ceiling for patience, exhaled one last sad puff of fire magic as he pinched the bridge of his nose, “ **Yes** , Noctis. Yes you did.”

Noctis laughed weakly, “Oh. Great.”

“Noct, this is **not** great, this is going to be a **mess** -. Noct, don’t just **kiss her again** you have no idea what that entails in their customs, I don’t care if you two knew each other from a past life and can speak ancient tongues! Noctis, there are **protocols** for inter-species relationships like this! **Noctis**!”


End file.
